'Consumer Welfare' and Article 82EC: Practice and Rhetoric

Abstract:     
This paper questions whether the objective of Article 82EC is indeed enhancing 'consumer welfare' as suggested by the EC Commission when one examines the application of the provision thus far. It critically analyses the case law of the EC Commission and Courts to show that there is great dissonance between the practice and the policy declarations on the provision. When one considers the practice alongside the rhetoric, Article 82EC appears as a provision enforced without a clear standard of harm leading to doubts about the legitimacy of enforcement. The article suggests that without a properly defined standard applied in actual decisions by the EC Commission and upheld by the EC Courts, the modernisation of Article 82EC cannot succeed.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 26

Keywords: Article 82EC, consumer welfare, restriction of competition, abuse of a dominant position, enforcement

JEL Classification: K21, P46

working papers series